Like most people, I came from humble beginnings. My first car was hand-me-down from my father – a 1981 Isuzu I-Mark (4 door). It was hardly cool, but I quickly started modifying it. It was painted Porsche red, had a big rear wing (we called it a “whale tail” back then) and had a single Weber carburetor. A bumping stereo system was also added.

Through the 1980s, I went through several Datsun Z cars, an 81 Honda Accord hatch and my first new car, a 1998 Nissan Pulsar twin cam. Each of them was more modified than the last one. 80s styling would be laughed at today but back then, it was trendy. I learned from every car.

By this time, I was done with slow 4 cylinder cars. I stepped up to a Mustang GT and proceeded to get crazy. The car had a 347 stroker, a Vortech S-trim cog-driven blower, TFS heads and a custom fabricated fuel system. The interior was gone through and the car had tons of suspension work and big brakes. The car ran 10.44 on sticky tires.

After getting dusted in my Mustang by a Supra, I decided turbos were the way to go. I bought a bone-stock, white, 1994 Supra off some small dealership in So Cal. The car went to the paint shop three days later and was now yellow. After winning some shows and race events, the car was spotted by Universal Pictures.

After the success of the first two films, I was hired by EA Games’ Need For Speed Underground game to build a real life Skyline GT-R that they could incorporate into the game. In collaboration with Neil Tjin, we created “Eddie’s” GT-R. I was also tasked with consulting on in-game dynamics. I got to spend time at the EA Games HQ in Vancouver, Canada. It was a great adventure.

Getting in on the tuner craze, Racing Champions hired me to consult on development of diecast replicas of all the main cars from the first movie. I shared my photo library and notes of all the modifications for all of the cars. Still, they missed a few details. Most notably, the replica of my Supra they created still shows 1995 as the year of the car…that’s wrong…my car was a 1994 Supra.

While serving as Director of Global Marketing for MagnaFlow Exhaust, I helped develop a show geared towards tuner enthusiasts. By this time, the market had shifted interest to drifting and the tuner show’s days were numbered. Fewer people were modifying cars, fewer were going to car shows, and there were way too many shows on TV about cars. The market was saturated and it started to unravel.

I helped to create a show for Playboy TV called “Badass.” I also served as the Director of several segments within several episodes of the shows over the course of a few years. I had lots of friends who “volunteered” to be of service on-set. Wasn’t that nice of them? The show’s concept was to show empowered women doing sports normally favored by men.

After years of talking about it, I did it: I wrote a book chronicling my adventures with The Fast and Furious franchise. It was released on Amazon in the Spring of 2017 and made its way to the #1 bestseller in its category. The book covers every aspect of how I got involved in the franchise, my role and duties, how my cars got chosen to be the main cars and much more. I made sure to mention many of the people who helped make these movies what they are – the mechanics, the stunt teams – and so many people behind the scenes that contributed so much.

The book goes into great detail about many aspects of the first two films, details that I’ve never seen publicized anywhere else. It includes about the box office results, specs on some of the cars and stories about many of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

There are no pictures, as I chose to made those available for free on my Instagram.

You can view the pictures along with little story snippets by following me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/craiglieberman_42

You can buy the book on my Shop page.

Today, I’m Digital Marketing Director for Imaginate Media. I still enjoy playing with cars. My current car is a 2015 Nissan GT-R with modest power upgrades (FBO) and some tasteful styling elements.

This car has been modified to run on E85 and makes about 625hp to the wheels. I use it as a daily driver – usuall, but there’s also a 2017 Audi S3 in the garage for long distance drives.